Anything's Comfortable If You're Tired Enough
by MiniBrissy
Summary: Another normal day at Afro Circus as the Penguins agree to practice an opening act. Things would have been well, but one problem- Rico's holding off on telling his brothers he's sick. Combine that with canons and trapezes, and what kind of disasterous recipe do you get? Enjoy!


**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi! I just wanna quickly say I love the feedback I've received! And yes, I'm open to messages for prompts, talking, etc! Enjoy the story!**

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The day at Afro Circus was slowly drawing to an end. It's been a very busy last few hours, as the performers had been rehearsing all day, and after them, Alex had convinced the Ringleaders of Afro Circus to bring about their own introduction performance to add to the show.

Skipper, the lead Ringleader, had agreed, thinking it would benefit the circus to have something to introduce Vitaly's opening act rather than just jumping right into it. So as the usual performing crew finished their rehearsals in the main tent, Alex sat down with the Penguins in a booth at the cafeteria and began rough drafting their little part in the show.

"It needs to be something short, yet something that'll get the crowd's attention!" Alex exclaimed as the group sat about, trying to figure things out.

So there they sat, Kowalski, Skipper, and Alex being the only voices to hear as they suggested their ideas. In the 'in' side of the booth, Rico and Private were present, the boy sitting on the other's lap. The two listened, sitting beside Kowalski.. Or at least, Private was watching intently on the thinking adults.

Rico was there, arms sitting across Private's lower abdomen, but he wasn't completely paying attention. His head was bobbing back and forth and he would make the infrequent sniffing sound. From time to time, his head would begin to lean to the side to rest on the wall he was sitting next to, but it would never quite make it there for he would jolt back away from the wall and open his eyes, trying to wake himself from the drowsiness.

Oh, it may have been a good day for the others, but for Rico, it was the longest, most agonizing day he's had in a while. He was suffering a bad fever, his nose wouldn't always allow him to breathe easy, his throat burnt like hell (not that it would show too well, as he didn't talk too much), and he had the occasional but very painful throbbing headache. He would get dizzy when he stood up and he would stagger when he walked. But none of them noticed, for he was very 'talented' at hiding all his symptoms, especially since he got it all past Private's high senses.

Through the whole day, he had been pushing himself to cover it all up. He would force himself to walk straight, he would breathe through his mouth as quiet as he could. He did everything his body allowed him to bottle up all the bad feelings at the cost of his already low energy. Concealing all of it had exhausted him, and that didn't sign to well now that they were possibly about to put together a small show.

Shaking his head to try to lift the tiredness from his body, he was met with a pair of cute big blue eyes looking up to him curiously. Rico gave a sheepish smile, gesturing to Private that it was nothing, and then ruffled the boy's hair when he turned his attention back to the others.

Rico listened in on the conversation, placing his chin on Private's head, who slightly jumped at the sudden sensation. Smiling at how the child on his lap reached up to try to softly pat his now closer cheeks, Rico pulled him into a firmer hold to pull him up since he had slid down the longer he sat on Rico's lap. Deciding it probably made Private a happier child, Rico kept the hugging sensation, arms under Private's.

Time passed, and finally, the three had come to a conclusion. They all climbed out of the booth, some stretching from the lack of movement. Rico put Private down so the both of them could also stretch their strained bodies.

"Alright, Fuzzball, glad we could settle this," Skipper said, hands on his hips.

"A-ahaha, no problem, Skipper. Say, what do you guys say? You wanna try it, we've still got plenty of time before dinner" Alex asked, holding the paper in front of Skipper and his brothers.

"Hm.. might as well, right boys?" Skipper grinned, turning to look at them behind him.

Once Skipper had turned back, Rico slouched his back, palm to his forehead.

"I've pulled through the whole day, I can handle this.." Rico thought to himself, the little voice in his mind lacking confidence.

Wiping his nose on his pointing finger, Rico jerked his head from side to side to rid of the pain that was mustering itself into his neck. Glancing his eyes down, he looked to see that Private and Kowalski had been watching, both confused, one suspicious.

"H-Hehe.. Jus-s stre'ch'ng.." he said, smiling awkwardly as he scratched the back of his neck. He suffered having to hide the burning that was triggered in the back of his throat, but he maintained well.

Kowalski hummed, seeming convinced enough. The taller man began taking steps towards Rico, the child following behind, curious.

Rico tensed, but stood his place. He gave a silent sigh of relief when Kowalski went behind him instead of stopping in front him to place his own hand on Rico's cheek. All of a sudden, Rico's shoulders shot up a tad when he felt two hands place themselves on each. For a moment, he Rico thought Kowalski was trying to mess with his head. Maybe he already found out that he was ill. Waiting for what felt like hours, Rico felt a calming motion on his shoulders. The strain on his shoulders and upper back were slowly being washed out as Kowalski moved his hands about Rico's shoulders. Turning his head back, he could see Kowalski leaning forward enough to have been by the side of Rico's head. Rico grinned at him softly, feeling the pleasure that Kowalski's massage gave his already smarting body.

"Well, I know just what to do to help you in this situation! Feels nice, eh, Rico? Besides we can't have you like that when we try out our set, now can we?" Kowalski spoke, smirking.

"Oohoohoo.. that was close.." Rico thought, feigning a jolly smile.

A few minutes later, the group had merged over to the main tent, where the equipment was still set up. Taking a few moments to go over what the settled routine was, the Penguins had a good idea of what to do. They were strapping their heads into helmets while Skipper and Alex conversed more about the plan.

"Shoot outta cannon, grab trapeze, flip or something, and land. Skipper gotta be in middle, gotta motion for people to look at Skipper.. Seems easy 'nough.." Rico thought to himself, going over it a few more times in his mind.

Glaring at the cannon that he, Kowalski and Private are to shoot out of at the same time, Rico felt his stomach twist and turn into knots.

"S-should I? No, no, I have to! Just survive through this and 'm free! Then can sleep off the fev'r" Rico contemplated in his mind.

He snapped his neck down when he felt something brush against the tips of his fingertips and then grab his fingers. He saw Private there near his legs, holding onto part of Rico's hand.

"Are you okay, 'Ico? You.. You look kinda worried?" Private asked, head tilted up to see Rico's face.

Putting on an act, Rico grinned, fake confidence present and nodded. "Uh-huh! F-fine!" he playfully answered, trying to enforce that he was supposedly alright.

Without much a warning, Rico felt himself almost pulled down when the youngster tugged him along, giggling. "Then let's go! We gotta get in the cannon with 'Walskiii!" the boy chimed, dragging his older brother along.

Rico gave a cracked chuckle, brows burrowing anxiously as he looked up from the little youth to see the cannon. He felt his stomach churning completely flushing his face with sickness. He swallowed, mouth filling with a familiar salty taste.

He had to do it, he just had to! He's suffered through the whole day, he couldn't just let himself give out the very last moment. Taking a deep breath, he forced the feeling in his mouth and stomach to go down. Rico then climbed into the cannon with Kowalski and Private. It wasn't necessarily comfortable, but they weren't too squeezed together, especially since one of them barely took up too much space.

Skipper was near the entrance of the cannon, arms folded. Alex was behind the cannon, waiting for the signal. Eyeing Kowalski, Skipper asked "You three ready? Helmets on tight?"

Looking to his side, Rico nodded, unable to smile from the nausea he was holding down. Private, who was on Kowalski's back for the majority, nodded and chirped a "Mm-hm!"

Making eye contact with Skipper again, Kowalski pulled his arm out from his side and gave a thumbs up.

"Alright, Fluffy, they're ready when you are," Skipper informed the man at the end of the cannon.

"Alrighty then!" Alex enthusiastically replied as he began to move the cannon to the set coordinations for the three to be fired to the trapezes.

Kowalski watched as his body was being moved to face certain direction by the contraption he was in, calculating to make sure Alex had right aim. Mid-way through his thoughts, he popped back into reality when he felt the man next to him shaking. He turned his head, face depicting pure shock and worry as to what was happening.

Rico was there, body trembling as he held his head up with one hand. His breathing was severely deep, as if he was struggling to breathe.

Rico was an absolute mess, last minute especially! He was able to force it down just a minute ago, but now here he was, everything hurting! His lungs burnt, as well as his face and throat. He couldn't control the shaking that persisted through his body, he felt badly short of breath, and his mind was in pure pain! A throbbing headache soaring through, he couldn't think clearly. He tried to open his eyes, but he would either force himself to shut them again to save himself from anymore pain or everything was doubling and would hurt his mind even more.

Kowalski clenched his teeth for a second, knowing from the very second he saw Rico in this state. But it was too late. As he tried to call out to Skipper to halt the plan, a loud noise ran through his ears.

"BOOM!"

The three were flying through the air. Kowalski was to be beside Private, to create extra precautions for the youngster. Rico was on the other side, face now completely showing extreme tiredness and sickness.

Kowalski quickly calculated when he'd need to grab onto that trapeze, and then turned to see behind to where the cannon is.

"Skipper! Alex!" he yelled, voice distressed. Private looked at him, eyes off the trapeze. "Get Rico! He's not gonna make it, Skipper! Catch Rico!"

Skipper spun around to Alex, both rushing to make a plan.

Turning his head back, Kowalski grabs onto the trapeze, but discontinues the planned performance, clinging onto the trapeze. Private, however, had lost focus on his trapeze when he turned to watch Kowalski. The boy's hand had slipped right past it, but was grabbed by Kowalski instead.

"Private!" Kowalski scolded, too worried that this plan had already threatened two of his brother's lives to watch his tone. The two watched in horror when they saw Rico go right past his trapeze stick, and was now falling a long drop that certainly would break bones.

"Skipper!" Kowalski shouted as he watched helplessly as he hung onto the wired stick, Private now clinging around his neck after climbing up from his hand. Private gave a cry too, but none were words, maybe too scared out of his life to form any at the moment.

Kowalski scattered to find where Skipper and Alex were, hoping they had some way to catch Rico. The net that was usually supposed to be under the trapezes were somewhere else, which was where the Penguins were to bounce off of after doing some sort of flip off the trapezes. Kowalski saw that the two men had pulled the two poles of the net out of the ground and were rushing it over to where Rico was to crash.

Rico opened his eyes, seeing himself falling towards the ground at a speedy rate. He was panicked, but his body refused to move. He closed his eyes, allowing himself to slip back into unconsciousness. "It doesn't m'tter 'nymore.."

Private and Kowalski stared as Rico had landed into the net, but his velocity pushed the net down more and more, needing Alex and Skipper to use more of their strength to push against that force to prevent Rico from touching the ground. Heaving a sigh of relief, Kowalski patted Private's back to let him know Rico was alright. The boy, still hanging onto the older one's neck, had averted his eyes by hiding his face into the shoulder.

Kowalski looked around, knowing Alex and Skipper were still lowering the net lower to get Rico out. He saw the sturdy pole that Gloria and Melman used for their show standing close to the current stick Kowalski was holding onto. Patting Private's back again, Kowalski instructs in a soothing voice, as to not cause any more terror, "Private, hang on to me alright? Hang on."

Getting a muffled "okay" in response, Kowalski begins to swing his body so he could catch a neighboring trapeze. He continued a few more, just enough to reach the pole.

Skipper looked up from the sick man laying in front of him, seeing Kowalski doing something particularly dangerous when there wasn't a net under him.

"Kowalski! You put yourself and Private in danger, I swear!" he warned, yelling enough for the said man to hear.

Kowalski jumped from the closest trapeze and caught onto the pole, slowly sliding down it. In a short moment, the two had reunited with the group, instantly by Rico's side.

Skipper had propped the young man up, whose body lied still, but was in fact conscious now. The lead Ringleader kept a tender hold on Rico's head to keep it up and decently comfortable. He slowly began to trace circles with his thumb, trying to get Rico to respond.

"Rico? Rico, buddy? You alright, soldier?" Skipper questioned, very peacefully and quietly. He was slowly rocking the younger man in attempts to break him out of the sort of daze.

"M-maybe he needs some water..?" Alex asked, kneeling behind Skipper.

Climbing down from Kowalski, Private ran to the benches, grabbed a bottle of water, and quickly made his way back to the group, holding the container out to Rico. Everything stood still for a few seconds, but was broken when slowly, Rico moved his arm to take the bottle.

Opening it, he took a sip, careful to not irritate his throat any more. He sat up, pulling away from the arm that propped him up, and poured some water into the palm of his hand and wiped it to his forehead.

"Rico.. why wouldn't you tell us?"

Silence. Then a cough, trying to clear his throat.

"W'sn't s'bad earlier.. P-p'lled though whole d'y, thought I co-could l'st th-this" Rico rasped, trying to keep his voice from allowing the others to pity him.

Instead of a scolding, Rico felt a hand softly patting his back. Then an arm went over the back of his shoulders, lifting him up.

"Let's.. let's just get you to get dinner and get you to bed, Rico.." Skipper's caring voice stated. "Lets' go boys, no more runs of the opening till everyone's in tip-top shape."

-At Cafeteria- 11:30 PM

Kowalski had started up the stove, heating the left over soup. Rico was sitting at the booth, head resting on arms. His breathing was badly plummeting to heaving pants.

Skipper was sitting beside him, one leg atop the other. Hearing a tormented groan, he turned his attention to the shivering man next to him.

Seeing that he was shaking, clutching his stomach with his arm as he curled into a ball, Skipper jumped out of his seat and grabbed the nearest trash can.

Holding it near Rico, Skipper rubbed Rico's back to calm him.

"Rico? Rico, here. You need a pail?" Skipper asked, voice as soothing as it could be.

Hearing a barely audible "M-mm-hm," Skipper began to guide Rico's head away from his chest and to the trashcan.

Needless to say, the ill young man emptied the contents of his stomach, if he even had anything in there as he had gone the day with only the scraps of food he could force into his stomach. After a few minutes, the vomiting had cesased and Skipper pulled the bucket away from Rico and then wiped his mouth with a napkin.

Looking up when he heard Rico begin to say something hoarsely. Listening closely so he wouldn't have to repeat himself, Skipper made out "D-don-t w'nna e-eat, Sk'pper.."

Skipper looked him in the eye, his own depicting loads of worry.

"Rico, are you sure? You haven't eaten anything all day, soldier. But if you really think your stomach can't handle it.. then I guess I can't force you. Are you really sure you don't want to eat?"

Rico thought for a while, then clutched his stomach once more. Closing his eyes painfully, he nodded slowly to not upset his body any more.

Humming in understanding, Skipper patted his back lightly. "Let's get you some rest then. Let me just tell Kowalski to hold off your soup, alright? I'll be back quickly."

Rico released a staggered breath as he watched Skipper stand up to go to said brother. He placed his head back onto his arm, eyes shut tightly.

Hm.

This.. This felt very calming.. his stomach stopped churning, as long as he didn't move. Relaxing his eyes, Rico began to drift away. Sleep sounded pretty nice. He's made it the whole day, he really wanted the hours.

*Patter* *Patter*

"Rico? Get up, Rico..?"

"Just a few more minutes..please!"

"Rico"

"Hnn.." the light in the cafeteria burnt his eyes the moment he opened them. He moved the other arm to block the painful rays, but stopped midway when he hit something.. something that was a complete blur.

Slowly, his eyes adjusted, and everything cleared themselves. Rico was met with Skipper in front of him, rubbing his eye. "Whoops"

"Rico" he chuckled. "I know I said to get you some Z's but come on, at least sleep in a bed. Here" he chuckled once more, before putting Rico's arm around his shoulder to support him up. Careful to not move the poor guy around too much, Skipper began making his way to their tent.

Within a few minutes, the two were in the tent, Skipper having tucked Rico into bed. Getting his bottle out of the pocket of his jacket, Skipper wet a rag with the water and placed it gently onto Rico's forehead, covering his eyes.

Skipper snickered lightly when he noticed that the younger had fallen into sleep right away after being put into the bed. Carefully ruffling Rico's hair, Skipper sat on the ground, head right next to Rico's, and leaned over and placed his chin on the bed.

-12:15 A.M-

Kowalski walked into the tent, little Private following close behind as he held onto the pants of the taller. They had just finished dinner with Alex. Er, well, they had finished a while ago, but Alex and Kowalski discussed future plans, leaving Private to have to wait until the two were done.

Raising a brow, Kowalski smiled tiredly at the sight that was waiting for him.

Skipper had fallen asleep, head resting on the bed in a tilted manner, right next to Rico. Strangely enough, it seems as if Rico had craned his neck a tad to have his cheek be touching the soft hairs on Skipper's head, which were beginning to lose their hold from the hair gel applied many hours ago.

Picking up the yawning child that stood by his legs, he walked over to the sleeping duo. He sat himself next to his older brother and placed Private in between him and Skipper. Turning so he slightly faced Skipper, he laid his head down on the bed, glancing at the child when he felt Private's head rest itself on his lap.

Slowly, the two joined Skipper and Rico's peaceful slumber.


End file.
